Use Your Digital Art Tools to Paint Faces!

There are many things to learn when you paint faces. If done correctly, learning to paint the complexity of the face will allow you to give your digital characters the much needed soul.

For the most part, the face is something we are all very familiar with. We can read the expression on our friends and family members with ease. And yet, putting in on paper, or in this case, a digital canvas, is harder than you think.

For example, how will the eyebrows and mouth react when you’re scared or angry when you paint faces? What about static features like the nose? Will it stay the same or will it flare out in some way?

Of course, if you’re focusing on landscape, then you can ignore this section on how to paint faces for the most part. However, that is not to say you will not paint characters in the near future. When that happens, just be glad you know how to paint faces!

Starting with the facial features and ending with expressions, without further ado, here are the articles that will help you paint faces:

Drawing Eyes
Starting with knowing the anatomy, we will be drawing eyes concentrating on each small trait ranging from the pupils to the lashes.

Painting Eyes
As a follow up lesson to drawing the eyes, here is where we begin to paint eyes with what we know about its anatomy. Use multiple layers to help you out.

Draw the Nose
We will start off easy by learning how to draw the nose. For the most part, this is a static feature that will not change much and will help to get into the groove of looking for shapes.

Paint the Nose
Building on drawing the nose, you will paint the nose with you digital art tools. The goal is to paint how the light will hit this feature. Try not to use the eraser tool at any given point.

Draw the Mouth
Learning to draw the mouth requires you to be focused on the planes. Since it is a very dynamic facial feature, you want the planes to help guide you light and shading through many different movements.

Paint the Mouth
Light plays a huge part when you need to paint the mouth. Since there are a lot of folds in the lips, it is important to use light as a means to highlight most of the folds in the lips.

Draw the Ears
While simple at first, learning to draw the ears is a complex exercise in seeing how curved ripples of shapes will look like in different viewpoints.

Paint the Ears
Aside from its shape, learning how to paint ears requires highlighting curved areas that will stand out and how it will link with the rest of the face.

Draw the Hair
To draw the hair, you must think about suggestion shapes rather than drawing each strand. This is even more important for drawing lighter hair color.

Paint the Hair
The techniques to paint the hair requires switching from suggesting spots of dark areas where the strands will come out and the thin strands of hair itself.

Draw Facial Expressions
The initial steps to draw facial expressions is to simplify it. Here is a brief introduction to possible facial expressions using simple caricatures for you to build on.

Drawing Sad Faces
As the title suggests, this is a small guide for drawing sad faces. Keep note of how each of the individual facial features are being stressed to give that look of grief.

Drawing Happy Faces
In drawing happy faces, only some of the facial features are stressed while other muscles are relaxed. Try to do many variations of this concept to give off different levels of happiness.

Drawing Fear Expressions
Though similar to the surprised face, drawing fear expressions only differ around the mouth region. Keep this in mind so you don’t get confused and draw the wrong expression by accident.

Drawing Surprised Faces
Once you have a good understanding of fear expressions, continue on with just manipulating the mouth region for drawing surprised faces. You should start seeing the differences immediately.

Drawing Angry Faces
Ready to give your character a look of rage and intensity? Do so by using these tips for drawing angry faces and give your characters this fundamental, and yet important, expression.

Drawing Disgust Expressions
Drawing disgust expressions can be easy if you know how to draw angry and sad faces. Focus on the angry top half of the face while combining with the sad bottom part of the face to show some disgust.

Have Some Tips Or Tricks For Painting Faces?

Do you have experience painting faces? Share it with others who are looking to learn the same thing!

Return from Paint Faces to the 2d Digital Art Guide.